Semiotic Theory of the Counterfeit：The Real and Fake in Tension

• Main Authors: Yi-Hsuan Lin, 林易萱
• Other Authors: Yu-Fen Ko
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/53082713042301011067

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 傳播所 === 92 === After the event of the NCKU MP3(成大mp3事件) and the Taiwan’s qualification as member of WTO, there has been series arguments about intellectual property from law, political and the ethic spheres. However, as the global center of counterfeit goods industry, there were few discussions toward this issue from culture study perspective in Taiwan. The main purpose of this research is to break through the past political-economic perspective, in order to find out the sign politics of counterfeit from the viewpoint of culture study. This research discusses counterfeit culture from the production and consumption of popular sign and using intensive interview and field observation as research methods. In opposition to legal goods, counterfeit is a kind of mimesis and misappropriation. Therefore, this research collects several theories about representation and discusses the concepts of mimesis, mechanical reproduction, and simulation. The constructs related to “the ways to represent” and “the tools of representation” will be my theoretical axis. Since this research mainly focused on the sign politics of counterfeit, Baudrillard’s theory of symbolic consumption and other related discussions in sociology, are the theoretical bases of this research. Here I concluded three points of views of this research. First, the producing logic of the fake-brand products contradicts to the real one. The mass production and flexible manufacture of the counterfeit interfere the real-brand product’s worship which comes from the strategy of limit manufacture. Second, no matter real or fake, what they sale is not the use value but the sigh value of the products.The reproduction of the real and fake name brand both increase the same sign value. Finally, the incorrect of counterfeit is due to its destruction to the distinction and the class made by name brand. Owning to the sign characteristic of name brand consumption, the law and ethic perspectives have no explaining power at all. What we see from the argument between real and fake name brand is not how to fight against the capitalism and state apparatus in the field of use value, but how to overthrow the sign-production logic and to mix up the social distinction made by the capitalism through the ambiguous gesture of the sigh. This is a possible way to fight against the mass system of capitalism concluded from a cultural study perspective.